Meg Lanning, Suzie Bates, Shabnim Ismail and Marizanne Kapp are among the star overseas players signed by WCPL franchises for the upcoming season. The fifth edition of the league will feature a fourth team, Jamaica Empress.
The Indian players confirmed are Shikha Pandey, Kiran Navgire, Yastika Bhatia and Pooja Vastrakar. For Vastrakar, the tournament will mark a return to official T20 cricket after a long injury layoff. She has not played an official T20 since October 2024, although she featured in the Madhya Pradesh T20 League recently. Bhatia will join Pandey at Trinbago Knight Riders, where Pandey also played in the 2024 and 2025 seasons. Apart from Pandey, the other three Indians will make their WCPL debuts.
Other high-profile signings include the South African quartet of Chloe Tryon, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk and Nonkululeko Mlaba. Tryon, Brits and de Klerk have been signed by Guyana Amazon Warriors, while Mlaba will play for Empress. The New Zealand pair of Maddy Green and Rosemary Mair and Ireland prodigy Amy Hunter have also been signed.
Only one Pakistan player has been signed so far: 22-year-old legspinner Syeda Aroob Shah, who will make her WCPL debut for Empress. Defending champions Barbados Tridents signed four overseas players, while the other three teams named five each. The Tridents' group comprises two New Zealanders and two Indians: Green, Bates, Vastrakar and Navgire. Amazon Warriors signed four South Africans and Australia's 38-year-old allrounder Erin Burns. Empress' five overseas players are from five different countries. TKR, meanwhile, have signed two Australians - Laura Harris and Madeline Penna - along with Kapp and the Indian pair of Pandey and Bhatia.
Lanning is Empress' headline signing and will make her WCPL debut at 34, while Kapp is set to make hers at 36. Four of Empress' five overseas players will be making their tournament debuts, with Hunter the exception after playing for Amazon Warriors last year. Ismail, Burns and Tryon, meanwhile, return to Amazon Warriors after missing the 2025 season.
WCPL overseas signings
Barbados Tridents: Maddy Green, Suzie Bates, Pooja Vastrakar, Kiran Navgire
Guyana Amazon Warriors: Shabnim Ismail, Erin Burns, Chloe Tryon, Tazmin Brits, Nadine de Klerk
Jamaica Empress: Meg Lanning, Amy Hunter, Nonkululeko Mlaba, Syeda Aroob Shah, Rosemary Mair
Trinbago Knight Riders: Marizanne Kapp, Shikha Pandey, Laura Harris, Madeline Penna, Yastika Bhatia